Organs status sent to cellphones wirelessly

A Dutch research facility has found a way to send organ status updates with a new wireless technology called a Body Area Network (BAN) so that they can be forwarded to doctors via a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. Yes, this means that your liver is getting its own IP address – not that IP addresses are scarce.

IMEC, the organisation, has used its own ultra-low-powered electrocardiogram sensors to perform the demonstration, but it isn’t the first. However, it’s the first that integrates better with gadgets, such as phones. It simply needs a dongle that can fit in an SD memory card slot in order to stream data. And for open source hippies, it runs on Android.

To make matters a bit more complicated, it isn’t using Bluetooth to transmit data, according to New Scientist. Instead, it is using a specially designed nRF24L01+ radio because Bluetooth uses too much power and would make the sensor last barely a day. This radio is said to allow the sensors last about a week.